Romesco Sauce is a Nut and Red Pepper based sauce originally from Spain.  Red Bell Pepper is not traditional to Romesco but the traditional Spanish Dried Peppers are very hard if not impossible to find so in the US so nearly all US recipes use Red Bell Peppers and sometimes a combination with some sort of dried pepper. Any combination of Almonds, Hazelnuts or Pine nuts can be used but most often it’s a combination of skinned roasted almonds and hazelnuts. I choose to use all Hazelnuts because of the unique flavor and I didn’t want this sauce to be too similar to the Muhammara Lebanese Roasted Red Pepper Dip also with nuts that I made before. Often but not always a slice of bread is added to Romesco and also Muhammara to thicken it more but I didn’t think it was needed in either recipe.

Romesco Sauce is used for grilled meats, fish and vegetables. Often when used for fish fresh mint is added.

Ingredients

3-5 Tomatoes (I used 5 VERY small tomatoes)

1/4 Sweet Onion (rough chopped)

1 Head Garlic (split in half)

approx 1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Large Red Bell Peppers (roasted, skinned, seeded)

1/2 Cup Roasted and Pealed Hazelnuts

2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika

Directions

Set oven to roast at 375 degrees.

On your roasting pan place your tomatoes on one side of pan and your onions and garlic on the other side of pan and give a good drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive oil over the produce.

Get some foil and cover the half with the onions and garlic.

Let it roast for about an hour.

After an hour it will look about like this.

The Skin with peal easy off your tomatoes. And just squeeze the Garlic Halves to get the cloves out.

Toss your cleaned up tomatoes, garlic, onions and all the liquid into your blending container.

Add your roasted Peppers and Hazelnuts.

Blend till smooth. It will have a slight texture from the nuts.

Add your dry spices, vinegar and blend some more.

Now you have Romesco Sauce.